MMFy

On 1/10/2017 at 22:27, Meath_Villan said:

 

 

Good lord it arrived ..........what now

Me and a mate are signed up for Challenge Paguera, Mallorca in October.  There will be some other triathlons of varying distances before that, but nothing up to a half until then.

10 hours ago, Meath_Villan said:

Dont strava give you the option of a mock start/finish location for viewers to your profile ? no need to change your name 

If someone has your Surname and knows roughly where you live (within 200m) it wouldn't be difficult to find an address. As an owner of multiple bikes, I would like to keep mine protected!

10 hours ago, Meath_Villan said:

So I signed up for the 50 mile and dublin marathon and sent the paper work in for my Tri Licence ........twill be some year .......Just on wet-suits for a beginner Triathlete they are quite expensive .....like would a hot tuna one from sports direct do me for the year or will it be buy cheap buy twice ..........should I splurge for oneills /orca etc 

Don't get a surf wetsuit, the shoulders are not designed for swimming in a tri. I bought a Zone 3 suit for a half distance last year and it was fine. About £100.

There's been some bike theft going on in Devon recently, so me and a number of my friends are changing our names to hide our identities. For those who know me on Strava, my name on there is now Porkie McSword

I'm cycling Birmingham to Exeter this weekend, with a stop off in Bristol on the way  Got a route planned at about 265km.  I can't wait to get out on my bike!

Is anyone doing the Birmingham Bikeathon this weekend?  I'm up in the Midlands and want to thrash through the 52 mile course.

And those lovely 3T wheels lasted 6 weeks before the freehub failed on me, about 85% of the way through the Dartmoor Classic...   

I bit the bullet last night and bought the 1000. 

I've also just finished building a new bike, after trying out a nice carbon bike in Ibiza a couple of weeks ago.  So I'm now the proud owner (parent) of a Cannondale SuperSix Evo HiMod with full Ultegra and carbon 3T team wheels.  It's incredibly easy to ride!

I did the Bideford 10K on Sunday with absolutely no training in 19 months prior to the day.  1:09, embarrassingly, and a chafed stinkers bridge to boot.  I can barely walk now.

Going to give it a couple of weeks then start running 2-3km per day, upping it to 5-10km 3 times per week.  I have a half ironman and the Birmingham Half marathon coming up...

Does anyone use a Garmin on their bike?  I've been using a Touring Edge for almost a year, but I think it's time to get more science out of it.  I'm currently training for a half ironman in September, and need to ensure I maintain my fitness and strength for the run, instead of battering the bike like I would in a sprint tri.

Does anyone use the Garmin 520?  It looks a lot more comprehensive for almost all aspects compared to what I am currently operating...

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aston-villa-lyon-admit-want-11052708

So Lyon want Garde back.  If this is the case, does he walk?  Do we sell him to Lyon, like the noses ripped us off with McLeish?

And if this is the case, should we try and get David Moyes, a manager used to working with a tight budget at Everton, who seems perfectly suited to Villa?

22 hours ago, ferguson1 said:

Lewis Dunk would be a great purchase in the summer and possible captain material as well. 

I'd go with Gardner for captain next season.  He's coming up with the goods at Forest, and that's going to be our level next season

.

3 hours ago, rodders0223 said:

He isn't playing at all. Not even getting off the bench unfortunately 

Still played more than twice as many games as Darren Bent.  And some want Darren Bent back here!

15 minutes ago, HAL said:

should just play clark and okore for the rest of the season and give either one of them the captains armband neither will do asbad as either micah richards or lescott and did rather well for parts of last season 

I've just pretty much said the same thing in the defence thread.

Richards and Lescott are dreadful.  Lescott has always scored a few for a defender, even when he was at Wolves, but that's because he is never where he is supposed to be!  His positional play is utter shite and he never provides cover for anyone.  And on top of this, he doesn't look interested.

Richards is ever-so-slightly better, but almost immeasurably so.  He'd probably make a good sweeper in a shite formation.  He's no good as a CB because of his lazy positional play, and he's no good as a RB because he never tracks his man closely enough.

I'd drop them both now, from the squad, and play the kids instead.  Okore is by far the best CB we have, and Clark or Baker would at least try and make a shot of it alongside him.

Hutton plays about three good games per season, Bacuna is a winger played out of position, Amavi was looking interesting until the injury, and Cissokho, deemed too poor for the squad last year looks like he's trying.

I'd be playing Bacuna - Okore - Clark - Cissokho at the moment.  I don't trust the rest of the senior options available.

BUT:  Given we are now as good as relegated, I'd play the kids.  Play the ones we can hold onto for next season in the fizzy pop league, give them some game time, and stop wasting our time and patience with these former Citeh wankahs.

Okore is our best defender, and has been since breaking into the team.  Lescott on the other hand is the worst defender I can recall in a Villa shirt.  So Okore spends a lot of time in the middle on his own while Lescott and Richards stroll around wherever they like.  Okore and Clark last season formed our most solid centre back pairing.

I would like to see Baker back in this team with Clark and Okore.  Lescott and Richards are too much of a liability.

We need to try and hold onto Okore in the summer.  He will most likely have ambitions higher than Villa though, as long as Randy Venkys Lerner is still destroying the club.

Okore is our best defender, and has been since breaking into the team.  Lescott on the other hand is the worst defender I can recall in a Villa shirt.  So Okore spends a lot of time in the middle on his own while Lescott and Richards stroll around wherever they like.  Okore and Clark last season formed our most solid centre back pairing.

I would like to see Baker back in this team with Clark and Okore.  Lescott and Richards are too much of a liability.

We need to try and hold onto Okore in the summer.  He will most likely have ambitions higher than Villa though, as long as Randy Venkys Lerner is still destroying the club.

11 minutes ago, Mantis said:

Can't see them winning it. Right now they're like the smaller team that's just gone 2-0 up against United or City or whoever. They've done very well but soon they'll start to realise the enormity of what they've done and wobble big time.

People keep saying this, while they're improving their playing style, conceding less goals and scoring more.  They are the form team in the league, and they've just beaten arguably their biggest challenger in their own back yard.

I hope they win the league, I really do.  As someone else said, this is the best thing to happen to football since 1992.

23 hours ago, av1 said:

Villa captain? Come on mate, what exactly had he done to deserve that?

What has Richards done?  He's walked in to the Villa team from years of obscurity and was made captain by a guy who is not even a manager.

The logic is in that if we are relegated, we already have a player who can control a team in the championship as he has done on more than one occasion.  Build a team around him and there's absolutely no reason why he shouldn't be captain.

Gardner is pretty much THE player in that Forest team, which is why Freedman speaks so highly of him.  If he can stay injury free, he should be Villa captain, not an habitual loanee.

Imagine buying a car, say a 12-month old ex-lease Ford Mondeo.  You get a relative bargain at £12k.  Then imagine driving that car for 10 years, not servicing it correctly, and running up more than average mileage.  Ten years on, you're trying to sell the car.  It's got high mileage, it's rattling and there's spots of rust on the arches.  Not to mention the dents, and the token rape tape holding the back bumper together.  Yep, it's got to be worth £12k.  By Randy's logic.

How much is Aston Villa realistically worth if relegated?  He can shove his £150-200m valuation up his arse.

According to the attached graphic seemingly stolen from Statistica (http://www.statista.com/statistics/234493/football-clubs-in-europe-by-brand-value/) the club was valued at $155m in 2015.  Not sure when in 2015, but given the fluctuation of the currency exchange rate I'd estimate that to be £100m.

Now reduce that by relegation, by an unknown factor (although that factor has to consider the award for staying in the Premier League is £99m, compared to a relegation parachute payment of £16m, and the club becomes worth a mere fraction of his evaluation.

The stadium is not worth what it cost to build, it's not a saleable asset as there is no natural successor customer for it.  The land wouldn't be worth that much, given the amount of bulldozed industrial sites that have not been developed.  The playing staff would not fetch much in a fire sale.  Especially given our record for throwing players out the door for next to nothing (Cahill, Davis, Myhill, Sturridge).

Randy Lerner, like Donald Trump, is not a self made billionaire.  He's a billionaire through inheritance.  Neither are astute businessmen, they're merely men of good fortune that have failed to build on their ancestors' business acumen.

I can only hope that there is a local businessman who is a die hard Villa fan, who is genuinely interested in the prosperity of Aston Villa.  We are not going to get an owner like the Sheiks or an Oligarch as far as I can see, we're not even a prospect to them.

Randy needs to get real with his valuation and get the **** out of this great club.

We need to bring in a couple of good loan players, players who need minutes on the pitch before the Euros.  A couple of good loanees and other players may be more convinced.

May have to give that one a thrash then, cheers!

I've given up on the flagship phones and gone for an Elephone P8000.  Three months in and I wouldn't swap it for anything.  Runs like lightning on stock android and the battery lasts forever.

However, can anyone recommend a really good media player?  Just for music?  I would like something similar to Windows Media Player, where I can build up track listings ideally.  I've got a 128GB card in the P8000, which on top of the 16GB internal memory will allow me to carry a lot of music around with me.  Any suggestions?

While I have a television, it's only used for watching the occasional film or box set.  When this telly breaks though, I'm not getting a new one.  Television is evil and should be banned.

I haven't watched a live broadcast on telly for almost two years.  After about six months of not watching it, your whole outlook on the world changes, and your eyes are opened.